Icon A5 Sea Plane

Canon EOS 5D

ƒ/2.8

35 mm

1/30

1000

Icon Aircraft held a debut party last night for the A5 amphibious sport plane in LA, our first chance to see the sea plane.

The FAA recently introduced a new sport pilot license, requiring only 20 hours of training for the recreational aviator. Imagine the motor boating crowd hopping around from lake to lake. (It does have a parachute if you freak out and decide that a regular landing is not possible.)

In his opening remarks, CEO Kirk Hawkins quoted Orville Wright: “The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport.”

Icon hired Nissan and BMW as design consultants, and this is the auto-inspired cockpit.

(Funny thing… with a DSLR in hand, it’s easy to blend in with the press for early access 😉

8 responses to “Icon A5 Sea Plane”

complexify.

Jun 12, 2008 at 7:56 pm

That is a nice looking, simple cockpit. More info from Icon’s press release today:

The standard ICON A5 model is amphibious with retractable landing gear and manual folding wings. The estimated price of the ICON A5 standard model is $139,000 and orders are now being accepted at http://www.iconaircraft.com with a refundable $5,000 deposit. Aircraft production and initial deliveries are scheduled to begin in late 2010.

If only I had a pilot’s license (and $139,000 burning a hole in my pocket), I’d be all over this.

The "Sport Pilot" license does look very attractive too, with the potential for introducing a whole new group of people to flying. Reminds me a little bit of when the FCC introduced the Technician ham radio license in 1990 with no Morse Code required!

Reply
brian Braun

Jun 12, 2008 at 9:10 pm

You gonna snag one for your garage??

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TomiTapio

Jun 12, 2008 at 9:20 pm

Decent picture, interesting vehicle innovation.

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nhr

Jun 12, 2008 at 10:49 pm

> this is the auto-inspired cockpit.

Indeed (^^;

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pug-dogibus

Jun 14, 2008 at 2:11 pm

A couple of years and this will be another aircraft fiasco. Never ends. Their website covers more about the people involved that the actual a/c specs. Hilarious!

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TomOwen

Jun 18, 2008 at 7:28 am

The interior looks more "Nissan" than "BMW" from the photo… Looks interesting… T

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carlosspencer5

Jan 2, 2014 at 8:07 pm

I would love to have one but I’m sure the average American will not be able to buy it,specially only making 35,000 to 45,000. But its still HOT

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jurvetson

Nov 3, 2016 at 4:23 pm

I just heard they have shipped 80 planes, and are working to ramp production now.

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Icon A5 Sea Plane

8 responses to “Icon A5 Sea Plane”

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